U.S. Rep. Rooney gets lessons in water facilities, Chinese drywall as he tours area | Video

PORT ST. LUCIE — U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, got refresher courses in river management and inferior construction materials as part of his winter break on Tuesday.

In the morning, the House freshman, whose district includes large portions of Martin and St. Lucie counties, was given a first-hand look at the work already undertaken on the Indian River Lagoon water treatment and storage structures, as regional officials push to bring more money to the project in the next fiscal year.

At stake for representatives from the county, South Florida Water Management District, and Indian Riverkeeper is a request for $40 million from the federal government toward the 12,000-acre project that is envisioned as a means to clean up water discharged in the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.

"It's as critical as stopping any bomber from getting on a plane with explosives, and yet trillions of dollars are going to Homeland Security," said Martin County Commissioner Patrick Hayes. "The gravity of the situation is phenomenal, although you don't see it as dramatically as a guy getting on a (plane)."

In the afternoon, he visited the Chinese drywall-damaged Port St. Lucie home of Ryan and Tirzah Pestenski.

The Pestenskis have remained in their 3-year-old home because they cannot sell or rent at a new location while still paying a mortgage. They want to avoid ruining their credit despite the visible corrosion of wiring and believed impacts to their health.

"It causes us to have bloody noses, it causes us to have dry eyes, it causes us to have trouble breathing at night," said Tirzah Pestenski. "You don't put it together that your walls are slowly suffocating you."

Their builder went out of business after the first cases involving the drywall was found, she said.

St. Lucie County Property Appraiser Jeff Furst has lowered the appraised value of the home from $160,300 to $36,900, which the Pestenskis said helped with their taxes, but further puts them underwater on their mortgage and on any chance of selling the property.

Furst estimated that while about 200 homes in the county have had their values decreased by 80 percent to 85 percent due to the imported drywall, there could be 200 to 300 more properties that have been affected.

Rooney said their is currently no "real remedy" from a government or other entities for those with property impacted by Chinese drywall. However, he sits on the Congressional Contaminated Drywall Caucus, where different congressional offices meet with agencies such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Environmental Protection Agency to keep a focus on the issue that is widespread in his district.

"Who is to blame, and (who) can create the remedies we still have to figure that out," Rooney said. "The difficulty is that this drywall originated in China and if they can be held liable at all. . . those are the things we still have to work out. But we will have them worked out."

As for the river, he said the Florida delegation will again continue to work to inform other legislators of the need for the lagoon water treatment and storage structures. However, he noted that the federal financing has a long way to go. Some still consider the work — started five years ago as Martin County has spent nearly $27 million from an existing voter approved 1-cent sales tax to craft a number of test sites in the western part of the county — to be a new endeavor, separate from the Florida Everglades restoration efforts.

"We got a little bit of a start this year by clearing this away from being what is classified as a new start, which is kind of ridiculous," Rooney said.

The House approved $22 million for the project in the summer, but all but $100,000 failed to make the final version of the bill after the work was deemed a new project in the Senate version.